Elizabeth Shackleton

Elizabeth Shackleton (1726–1781), born Elizabeth Parker, was an English diarist. She was the only daughter of her father who inherited an estate in Yorkshire. She made a disappointing first marriage and a disastrous second. She is remembered for her diaries and letters which her family preserved. The diaries were the basis of an award-winning book about "Women's Lives in Georgian England" in 1998.

Life Shackleton was likely baptised on 22 December 1726 at St Peter upon Cornhill in the City of London. Her parents, both of the landed gentry, were Elizabeth (born Southouse) and John Parker (1695–1754), who was a linen draper from London. In 1728, her father inherited Browsholme Hall and its estates which were then in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The income from the estates was £500 a year, so Elizabeth and her parents moved to the hall. Elizabeth was an only, and maybe over-indulged, daughter. and it became Elizabeth's home when she married him on 1 October 1751. In 1775, she moved out of Alkincoats as her son, who now owned it, had married. She went to live at her husband's new three-storey house, Pasture House, at Barrowford where her husband physically abused her.

Death and legacy

Shackleton died in 1781. Her legacy was her portrait,